Heads of Cataloging Interest Group

We have two fabulous speakers who will discuss their efforts to transform their catalog departments beyond the traditional boundaries and successfully implement innovative changes.

I. Living Up to One’s Digital Potential in a Traditional Cataloging Unit (Presenter: John Riemer)

Speaking from lengthy personal experience, John Riemer is going to address how a traditional cataloging unit can actively enter the digital age and successfully undertake new roles for catalogers and metadata. Along the way he will reflect on the reasons why catalogers should want to do this and on what some of the rewards have been.

Currently the Head of the UCLA Library Cataloging & Metadata Center since 2000, John Riemer previously worked as Digital Cataloging Coordinator for the Digital Library of Georgia (1999- 2000) and led serials cataloging for over 15 years at University of Georgia. In 2010/2011 he was Chair of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, serving a 2009-2012 elected term on the PCC Policy Committee. During this time he has led an effort to expand the PCC’s scope to include both traditional MARC/AACR2 cataloging and digital library project metadata/new metadata roles. He is a member of the OCLC Research Library Partners Metadata Managers Focus Group. He serves as a member of the Cataloging & Classification Quarterly Editorial Board and writes guest columns for Technicalities. Among his recent publications is “The Expansion of Cataloging to Cover the Digital Object Landscape” (CCQ, 2010)

II. Evolution, Revolution, Transfiguration (Presenter: Philip Schreur)
From the massive redesign of its Technical Services in 1996, the remodeling of its Catalog Department in 1999 and its “elimination” in 2008, the transition to RDA in 2009, and its recent postings for a Linked Data Technologist and a Metadata Strategist in 2013, the Stanford University Library’s Metadata Department has undergone explosive, directed evolution for the past 16 years. Each step has been driven by its own advance in technology and business need. The presentation will focus on the drivers for these changes and the innovations developed to support them. Last will be a look to the future and the unprecedented pressures and opportunities that are coalescing to push us from revolution to transfiguration.
Philip Schreur received his PhD in Musicology from Stanford University in 1987 and his Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of California Berkeley in 1988. He is currently the Head of the Metadata Department at Stanford University where he serves as Metadata Strategist and has strong interests in the automatic generation of descriptive and controlled metadata stemming from his work as Knowledge System Developer for HighWire Press (2000-2005). He served as chair of the Policy Committee for the Program for Cooperative Cataloging from 2012-2013 focusing attention on RDA implementation and authorities in a non-MARC environment. His recent article “The Academy Unbound: Linked Data as Revolution” (LRTS 2012) won Best of LRTS award. He is part of a linked-data skunkworks group at Stanford University investigating the digital repository as database of record, authority management through linked data, ontology mapping, and BIBFRAME implementation.